Rain barels- Gardening & Landscaping

I came accross this bit of infor while searching tonight for a DIY. Thought it was helpfull so I am posting :). Hope you all find it helpfull too. I checked with my city and no luck but We do have coke plants here too. I supose they will be doing the same as in jefferys article. Anyone have any

Rain barels

I came accross this bit of infor while searching tonight for a DIY. Thought it was helpfull so I am posting . Hope you all find it helpfull too. I checked with my city and no luck but We do have coke plants here too. I supose they will be doing the same as in jefferys article. Anyone have any ideas how to find out without annoying anyone??

3 Ways Under $10 to Make a Rain Barrel
Written by Jeffrey on February 26, 2007 | Comments (22) Why harvest rain water? The world is 2/3 water is it not? True, it is, but Sam Davidson at CoolPeopleCare.org cites a fact from RainBarrelGuide.com that less than 3/10 of one percent of that water is suitable for domestic use. Don't you think we could find better uses for the commodity of fresh water (which we take for granted in this country) than to water our plants or wash our cars?

Recently, I posted a two part article here at The Fun Times Guide to Living Green that shared 3 Alternatives to Drinking Bottled Water [part 1, part 2]. Part Two, introduced the idea of harvesting rain water for such purposes as landscape care and more. If you could have a rain barrel for less than $10 dollars (or even free), would you do it?

You may be thinking that it'd be pointless and take forever for, oh, let's say an eighty gallon barrel to fill with water to use. But did you know that one inch of rain on 1,000 square feet of roof can produce 6,000 gallons of rainwater? I sure didn't! This obviously means that any rain barrel is going to need an overflow hose.

Let's discover some cheap ways to obtain your very own rain barrel. These are all DIY projects, but are of a very basic nature. Virtually anyone should be able to complete them with ease.

Meredith at The Fun Times to Guide to Brentwood, TN commented on the second part to 3 Alternatives to Drinking Bottled Water with some quite handy information on this topic. She informs that Metro Nashville Water Services was giving away free rain barrel kits early this year! There is apparently a waiting list for the kit now, but check with them to see if some are still available. In the mean time, they do provide a handy guide to making your own rain barrel.

Many municipal governments offer free rain barrel kits of some sort, so check with your local governing body to see if they offer something of the sort.

Check with your local bottling company. Many of them sell their barrels for under $10. You may even luck out and find one for free! Then all that is left is to buy the inexpensive hardware from your local Home/Hardware store, and you're good to go!

If you're in Nashville, Coca-Cola on Craighead St. sells their 55 gallon drums for $6. They're only available on Thursdays from 6:15am-noon, and you need to call Ana Monchellas Williams at (615) 383-6230 before you come to let her know how many you need.

One commenter on the above referenced article at CoolPeopleCare.org says, "Nashville Drum and Barrel has 55 gallon plastic drums (food grade) for $8 a piece." Nashville Drum and Barrel is in Fairview, TN. That drive would be worth it for an $8 barrel, considering the skyrocketing prices of pre-fab rain barrels at hardware stores and the internet.

Fun Rain Barrel Making Tip:
Get everyone involved by having a Rain Barrel Painting contest! Gather your children, family, friends, neighbors, and the like to make (unless you want to construct them all yourself) and paint your new rain barrels with low or no VOC paint!

Here's one example of a nicely decorated barrel (and another how-to guide for constructing it)...you might recognize it from the above bullets .

No one wants to have an ugly white, green, or blue plastic drum disrupting their nicely landscaped lawn. Make this an opportunity to enhance your home's unique look and show your loved ones how fun it can be to Live Green!

Re: Rain barels

Great idea to do. This is something that we all should think about doing. It sure would save our water supply. I live out of town, so this would save me on my electric bill. Since I don't have city water, but if you do, it would save you from paying a large water bill too. Thanks for the post and the site.

Re: Rain barels

IMPORTANT TIP: For those wanting to use a rain barrel remember these points:

#1 Make sure the base is secure .. Toss down a deep layer of small rocks, consider putting cement base down .. Water is heavy - 50 gallons is about 400 pounds

#2 MOSQUITOS - you need to put a cover over the opening .. this may mean using something like a pair of panty hose or fine netting with a draw string .. This won't completely eliminate the problem but will help

#3 tap it. Check the local hardware store for various taps, there are some that are self tappers (personally I would hesitate if you are up north - ice etc and down south heat may make the plastic drum softer) .. Drill the hole slowly, make it a tight fit, use silicon caulk (exterior grade) to seal the facucet. Leave a short length of hose attached, this will put less stress on the fitting, vs taking it on and off - you can attach long length to the shorter length.

#4 You can run rain barrels in tandem, one should be lower than the other so the overflow fills it.

Re: Rain barels

the problem with open top is the mosquitos .. some areas are prone to diseases spread by the mosquitos to birds, then back to humans etc .. not a good thing

Putting in the hose fitting although a tiny PITB in the beginning is enormously great time saver and body saver afterwards .. If garden is down hill then you can run the hose to that area and have water with a little pressure <g> .. even if same level because of the pressure of the water on top it will drain from hose just not as fast .. This saves your back from hauling water back and forth

Using a hose even to fill watering cans is much easier than pushing them in the can and pulling out (rough on back - not a good posistion for you)

Ria (who in her younger days did stupid things to her back and paying for it now as an old lady)

Re: Rain barels

Ask before you use it to water vegetable gardens! the Missouri Dept. of Conservation took samples around the state of folks rain barrels and ALL of them had very high toxic chemical rates. We were told we could use it to water grass and flowers but do not use it to water something you will eat! If you won't eat the snow because of what's in it, then you won't want to use the rain either! It's so sad to know how much we've dumped into our environment that will take years to flush out and remove. Between the chemicals farmer have used since the 1950's and the stuff floating out of our factories, we have a lot to clean up before the rain/snow will be fit to use again!